Читать книгу Stories I'd Tell My Children (But Maybe Not Until They're Adults) - Michael N Marcus - Страница 12

One summer while I was in college, I needed a job and the Pennsylvania state employment office directed me to the PairAway ShoeCenter in Bethlehem.

It was a huge self-service store with a gigantic sign that proudly proclaimed “2 Pairs for $5.”

If you needed only one pair, you paid $2.99, but hardly anyone ever bought just one.

If someone did need just one, she’d hang around the store and partner with someone else who needed one, so they could share the five-buck deal.

Five bucks paid for style, but not much quality.

These shoes were made of plastic, cardboard, glue and staples. If you wanted footwear constructed with thread and the skin of a cow or a pig, you had to shell out the big bucks at PairAway, at least $5.99 per pair. Few of the expensive shoes were sold, except for prom shoes and the $8.99 steel-toe work shoes that were necessary to protect steelworkers’ lower extremities.

I was vastly overqualified for a self-service shoe joint because I had experience working in a real shoe store and actually knew how to measure feet and judge if shoes fit. But they needed an employee and I needed a job, so a deal was done.

The store manager was Davey, who had recently returned from a few years soldiering in Viet Nam. He was aware of my anti-war politics and agreed with them.

Second in command was Daisy, the wife of a Marine then in Viet Nam. Daisy was still in the “my country, right or wrong” state of mind, but never argued about the war with Davey or me, She just wanted her husband to come back, whole and healthy.

Miss Daisy drove a bright red fastback Chevy Impala with a USMC decal on the rear window and a noisy exhaust system. The car looked like it was 40 feet long. She drove it very fast and got a lot of tickets. The cops couldn’t miss a loud and long bright red Impala.

Daisy’s sister, Janie, worked at the nearby Just Born candy factory, and often brought Daisy bags of chocolate-and-molasses- coated Peanut Chews, which Daisy eagerly scarfed down, apparently to compensate for the absence of her husband and high school sweetheart, Gary.

Thanks to the Peanut Chews, and a daily Whopper-With-Cheese from the nearby Burger King, Daisy put on about 20 pounds in two months. Then she panicked when she learned that Gary would be coming home for some unanticipated “R&R” (rest and recreation).

Not wanting to scare him away, she determined to quickly shed the effects of the excess eating and regain the body she had on their honeymoon. She made an appointment with a “diet doctor,” who sent her home with a supply of Dexedrine brand amphetamine diet pills, known outside the doctor’s office as speed. “Dex” is a powerful psycho-stimulant that increases wakefulness, energy and confidence while decreasing fatigue and appetite.

Davey and I were amazed at the effect the Dexedrine had on Daisy. Not only were the pounds evaporating, but she was absolutely energized. She started coming to work earlier than she had to, and working later than she had to, and was actually waiting on our customers instead of just sitting behind the cash register. The combination of drugs and increased physical activity gave Daisy an amazing body sculpting, and she was HOT. Male customers ogled her and tried ineffective pickup lines. Daisy looked so good that Davey said he would have tried to take her to bed if she was not his employee and if her husband was not a massively muscled Marine who was coming home soon.

He did seem to give her many more hugs than before the transformation and he admitted to me that she had become the subject of his masturbatory fantasies. It was apparent that if she had given him the slightest encouragement, the ex-Army man would have made a move to temporarily replace Daisy’s Marine.

I, too, was attracted to the new Daisy, and I wasn’t her boss or afraid of her husband. However, I had a girlfriend at the time, and wasn’t interested in an affair with someone else’s wife.

Just as Daisy’s sister Janie had shared her supply of Peanut Chews, Daisy offered to share her speed. Davey readily agreed. I was not a good pill-taker, having only recently made the transition from rectal aspirin to oral, but I had tried LSD and marijuana, and this was the ’60s, so why not?

The next day, after sampling Daisy’s supply, Davey and I met with her doctor. This was a time when doctors could actually sell medication to their patients—not merely write prescriptions for pharmacists to sell to the sickly—and he did not demand much proof of the need for speed.

Soon there were three pill-popping amphetamine-addicted idiots working at PairAway.

We were excellent employees. We were hyper, hyped-up employees. The store looked GREAT. I made beautiful window displays. Davey made beautiful signs. Daisy kept the store clean. As soon as a speck of dirt appeared on the carpet, out came the vacuum cleaner. As soon as a fleck of dust or a fingerprint appeared on the front counter, out came the spray bottle of Windex glass cleaner.

When a pair of shoes was sold, leaving a gap on the shelves, we’d immediately start shifting the stock to fill in the space, so it looked perfect. There were periods when we three stayed in the store for days at a time, going home only for a quick shower and a change of clothes.

We seldom ate, seldom stopped working, and never stopped talking. We drank gallons of Pepsi to lubricate our perpetually dry mouths.

One day my parents drove to Bethlehem with my brother and sister for a surprise visit and they took me out to a nice restaurant for lunch.

I was whacked on speed and would not shut up.

During a brief moment of sanity, I was able to step outside my body and observe the sick scene.

I realized I was acting like an asshole.

After lunch, I went back to PairAway and gave my remaining speed to Daisy. She gave me a bag of Peanut Chews. I think I came out way ahead on the deal.

Unfortunately, Daisy’s husband Gary’s Marine platoon was ambushed in Chu Lai. Sadly, when he returned to Bethlehem, it was for his funeral, not for R&R.

A few months later, the still slim widow Daisy quit her job at PairAway and married her former boss.